Cine Tenerife (Yaiza Borges Cinema)

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1951

Cine Tenerife was located at the highest part of what is now known as Avenida Islas Canarias (formerly General Mola). For almost thirty years, a huge number of films were screened in this venue, but what made this place notable was that for a brief five years, in the early 1980s, it functioned as a true cultural dynamo for the city under the name Cinematógrafo Yaiza Borges, offering cinema of recognised quality, without commercial interest being the sole priority.  

The former Cine Tenerife was inaugurated in 1951 as a leisure venue for the Buenavista neighbourhood. It was built on the edge of the road leading to La Laguna and featured a large rectangular auditorium with a capacity for 700 spectators. After twenty-five years, the venue combined its function as a cinema with other varied uses: dance hall, rock concert space and, following the arrival of democracy, it hosted heated political rallies. 

On 22 October 1981, after extensive refurbishment and under the auspices of a collective of young film enthusiasts, the cinema began operating under the name Cinematógrafo Yaiza Borges. The group managing the new venue had been founded a few years earlier by members of the Asamblea de Cineastas Independientes Canarios (ACIC) (Assembly of Independent Canarian Filmmakers). “El Yaiza Borges”, as the former Cine Tenerife became known from that moment, ceased to be a commercial cinema and became a place where independent films in their original version and of proven cinematic quality were screened. With a sober interior design (all in black and white) and cycles of classic titles or cult authors, the cinematograph became a cultural reference for the entire city. However, its lack of economic viability, the utopian nature of the project and limited social support led to its downfall, closing its doors permanently in May 1986. Cinematógrafo Yaiza Borges operated for almost five years, providing the city with an invaluable cultural contribution during this short period.

After several years of closure, the venue was transformed into a gym, sauna room and squash courts; a function it maintained for a time until total abandonment. At the beginning of 2023, the building was definitively demolished.

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